The Great Easter Hunt
by darth picard
Summary: When Crowley decides Halt needs to have some fun around Easter what should he do? Why have an easter hunt of course! Rated T for safety. One-shot story.
Easter Ranger'sApprentice fanfic

 **Happy Easter everyone! I just had this crazy idea for an Easter themed Ranger's Apprentice story and just had to write it! Hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Now as I didn't think Rangers would have egg hunts, I went for the next best thing.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ranger's Apprentice.**

Will woke up Sunday morning to find Gilan sitting at the table in the cabin. Now while that wasn't all that unusual since Halt's former apprentice loved showing up unexpectedly for visits, but normally he had a reason. Right now however, he appeared to have no purpose to be there. Gilan was lounging in a wooden chair, sipping from a mug of coffee he held in his hands. He looked up as Will entered.

"Good morning Will!" he said cheerfully, taking another sip of his drink. Will blinked in surprise.

"Morning Gilan. What are you doing here?" he asked, puzzled.

"That's what I would like to know. " Will jumped slightly as Halt spoke. Turning, he saw Halt leaning against the wall by the window. He had failed to spot the gray haired Ranger before now, but realized he must have been leaning there the entire time. Halt now fixed his former apprentice with a glare.

"He's awake now. Why are you here?" he demanded. Gilan pouted slightly.

"You know Halt, if you are that blunt all the time a guy gets the feeling his company isn't appreciated." Halt merely glared again.

Gilan grinned. "Orders from Crowley. He decide that you shouldn't spend your Easter without a little fun this year."

"Easter?" Will spoke up. "Wait that's today?" Gilan nodded, still grinning.

"Yep, and Crowley set up a hunt of sorts to help us all have a bit of fun this year. "" He said. "He sent me to tell you guys since apparently last time he did that, Halt almost shot him being the grump he is." Halt narrowed his eyes.

"And what makes him think I'll come this time?" he asked dryly. "I've successfully manage to dodge all of his past few 'fun' training activities." Gilan's grin got even bigger if that was even possible. Will was pretty sure that his face would stick like that if he kept it up.

"Oh he knows that. That's why he set it up in the woods around this cabin this time. It starts as soon as one of us step foot outside." A full 5 seconds of silence followed his statement.

"Oh he did, did he?" Halt asked. His voice was calm and quiet, and was accompanied by a rather dangerous looking glint in his eyes. Will found it rather creepy looking to be honest. Gilan swallowed nervously, not stupid enough to try and joke when Halt had that look on his face.

"Um, Yeah. The objective is find a number of colored flags and make it back here before the others do. We're supposed to try and discourage other players from getting flags before we do."

"I see. And are we allowed to shoot at other players to stop them from taking flags?" Halt asked. His calm demeanor was starting to make Will nervous. Gilan shot a nervous look towards Will before responding.

"Yes, but were not allowed to purposely harm them seriously." He said starting to sound a bit worried as to what Halt was thinking. Halt nodded.

"That's all I needed to know." He said. Grabbing his cloak from where it hung beside the door, he turned to Will and Gilan. "Are we going for specific flags?" Gilan nodded.

'"Will collects blue, I have red, Crowley has purple, the other 5 Rangers involved have gray, black, white, yellow, and orange respectively. You collect green." Halt nodded and left the cabin. Will and Gilan exchanged one more uncertain glance.

"Team up for safety?"

"Definitely. I'm not facing him alone. He's scary like this."

"He's always scary."

"Point taken."

They quickly followed their mentor outside and the three Rangers entered the woods and faded into the surrounding environment.

Crowley crouched behind a tree, his mottled cloak causing him to blend in perfectly. He was staking out one of the green flags Halt was meant to collect to see if his friend was actually participating in the training activity.

More often than not, Halt would somehow manage to 'escape' Crowley's yearly training exercises. Finally, Crowley decided enough was enough an chose a more direct route by setting it up directly in front of Halt's cabin.

In Crowley's opinion, Halt should pay more attention to the Holidays. At the very least, he should acknowledge them but Crowley noticed that when Halt had an apprentice to train, he seemed not to focus on much else than Ranger business. The trend had appeared when Gilan was apprenticed to him and only by constant nagging did Gilan ever get Halt to let him have the day off to roam the village.

Crowley hadn't been sure at first what to do this year exactly, but when he saw some children from Redmont playing a egg-hunting game, he decided to modify that idea to fit Rangers.

Thus, his brilliant plan.

 _Well,_ Crowley thought, carefully scanning the woods around him searching for any signs of other Rangers. _I thought it was a brilliant plan. Gilan and Lumen and the others didn't seem so sure._ He wondered how Gilan had fared in talking to Halt. He was glad he had sent him instead of going himself. Halt was less likely to kill Gilan. Now himself on the other hand, Crowley was pretty sure Halt wouldn't hesitate to put an arrow through him.

 _Thunk_

Crowley leapt back in shock as a brown shafted arrow embedded itself into the tree next to Crowley. He looked up to see Lumen, one of the younger Rangers in the corps stepping out from behind another tree.

"I would run if I were you." He spoke hurriedly. "Halt was challenged by some other players and now he's on a war path. It's gotten so bad the rest of us excluding Gilan and Will have decided to form an alliance." He paused, casting a glance over his shoulder as if he expected Halt to be right there.

"I think he and his opponents are trying to win by taking you out." He said nervously. Crowley grinned. He had expected as much. Just as well; at least he knew Halt was in the game now. And if Halt wanted a war' he'd get one. He frowned suddenly though, thinking about what Lumen had just said.

"Wait, what do you mean excluding Gilan and Will? What are they doing?" he asked. Lumen grimaced.

"They're the ones who decided to challenge Halt."

"I hope you know that if he kills us, it's all your fault." Will grumbled as he and Gilan snuck through the woods behind the cabin. Gilan shook his head.

"Only partly. It was your idea to put Easter decorations up. I only suggested replacing his honey with tree sap."

"Yeah like that's a safe plan. You'll be living in a tree for the rest of your life for that one."

"Well," Gilan said coming up beside a tree overhanging the cabin. "It's too late now. We already made the switch and hung those decorations. Now we just need to hide." He started climbing the tree swiftly, Will following right behind him.

Crowley was now starting to think this was in fact not a brilliant idea. Halt hadn't found him yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time. He decided to try and make his way back towards Halt's cabin. Perhaps he could escape from there.

But just as he was crossing the stream that flowed near the cabin, he got the feeling he was being watched. And knowing Rangers, he probably was. On instinct, Crowley ducked.

An arrow flew overhead, in the exact spot he had been standing moments before. Whirling around, Crowley wasted no time in firing a return arrow. They were mock-arrows of course, but painful nonetheless. His arrow forced Halt to dodge behind a tree, giving Crowley the time he needed to take cover behind a fallen tree. He quickly fired another one off, trying to draw Halt's fire to the left so could move, but Halt's next arrow collided with it, knocking it aside. A second arrow followed, striking the log where Crowley was concealed. Nocking another arrow to his bowstring, Crowley waited, watching the area Halt was. He knew better than to focus on just the tree. After all, Pritchard had trained both of them to take full advantage of their surroundings. He glanced to the right and was rewarded with a glimpse of a cloaks edge disappearing behind a tree a few meters from the original one. Crowley turned and fired at the same time Halt did, giving him only seconds to move.

Quickly, Crowley leapt onto the log he was behind and raced along its length to the cover of a tree. Halt fired again, but in a show of equal marksmanship, Crowley knocked his out of the air, copying Halt's earlier move. Now behind the tree, Crowley slung his bow on his back and quickly climbed the tree.

"Woah," Will said from his and Gilan's vantage point atop the cabin roof. They were watching in awe as arrows seemed to appear from nowhere at seemingly random targets. The only sign that anyone was there, were the occasional bursts of movement Halt and Crowley made.

"I'm quite happy those two are on our side in actual battles." Gilan said from where he was perched next to Will. "If even one of them was on the other side, we would all be dead in minutes."

"I can't even tell who's winning at this point." Will was watching the chaos with wide eyes. But even as they watched, Halt fired and arrow upwards into a seemingly random tree sending Crowley tumbling to the ground. Halt stood, another arrow pointed at his friend. "I win." Halt said. Crowley laughed from his spot on the ground.

"Fair enough. See? That was fun!" Halt simply shook his head and lowering his bow, replaced the arrow into his quiver as Crowley climbed to his feet.

"If you call that 'fun'." Halt grumbled, but even from where Will and Gilan were, it was obvious that he was trying not to smile. Laughing Crowley handed over the flags he had collected. He had flags of several different colors, leading Gilan to assume that he had taken some from other Rangers. Those other Rangers, were now starting to make their way out of the woods. Lumen's and Rand's cloaks both had tears in them while Sam's looked like he had dropped it in a mud puddle. Clint and Quentin were soaking wet. Will guessed they had been thrown in the river.

Gilan quietly motioned for Will to follow him and they crept back from the edge so they would not be spotted. They knew what would happen once Halt entered the cabin and preferred not to be within Halt's sight. Will only hoped they had covered their tracks well enough.

"Say Halt, Where are Gilan and Will? Did you take them down as well?" Crowley asked as the group walked towards the cabin. Halt turned to look at him.

"They challenged me to a race of sorts to collect all the flags before they got to you. I assumed you dealt with them since they aren't here." Crowley shook his head.

"Nope. I haven't seen either of them since I sent Gilan to talk to you." He said. Halt shrugged and stepping up onto the verandah, he opened the cabin door.

Every single surface and piece of furniture in the cabin was covered in colored paper and streamers. Stray decorations floated down from where they had been on the now open door. Crowley peered around his friends shoulder and tried- and failed- not to laugh. Halt's eye started to twitch.

"Ah well, it's just some Easter decorations Halt. They can always clean it up later but just see how festive it looks in there!" Halt turned to glare at the Ranger commandant.

"Those two are dead." He growled. Crowley started laughing again.

"Hard to kill them if you don't know where they are!"

"Well, wherever they are, they'll come here eventually." Crowley nodded in agreement.

"Then I guess you can just send Gilan over towards Redmont- that's where the rest of us are camping since I highly doubt we'll all fit in that cabin." Crowley said cheerfully. "Just try and not kill them; it's a pain to train more people." Halt glowered at the festive décor in his cabin.

"No promises" Halt growled.

Taking their leave, Crowley, Lumen, Clint, Rand, Sam, and Quentin headed back towards where they had left their horses. Halt sighed, heading into his cabin to make himself a cup of coffee. While he waited for the water to heat up, he glared out a window at nothing in particular.

"Stupid apprentices and their pranks," he muttered under his breath as he poured himself a cup of coffee. "They have no respect." He reached for the jar of honey on the counter and spooned a generous amount into his mug. He took a sip. And immediately spit it out.

Taking one look into the honey jar, he noticed the honey seemed darker and more sticky than usual. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was…tree sap!?"

Slamming the jar on the table, he strode angrily towards the door.

"That's it" he growled as he started searching for signs as to where they might be. "Those two are dead meat."

It was time to go apprentice hunting.

"Uh-oh" Gilan whispered as he and Will watched Halt storm around outside of the cabin. "I think he's angry."

"You think?" Will hissed back. "At least you can escape! I live here. I'm as good as dead!"

"You both are." Both Will and Gilan jumped in shock as Halt's voice sounded from directly below them. Peering over the edge cautiously, they were met with the sight of their mentor glaring up at them. "Feel free to stay up there, in fact," he growled. "You can spend the night up there. No one messes with my honey. And tomorrow you can clean my entire cabin and the stables." Gilan and Will exchanged defeated expressions. They were doomed.

 **And there it is! Hope you all enjoyed this story and don't forget to leave a review!**


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